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Eel Soup

A soup made with eels, water, onion, mace, pepper, herbs, bread crust, carrot, and optional cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and carrot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,555 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Eel Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the soup

  1. In a pot, combine eels and water.

  2. Add onion, mace, whole pepper, sweet herbs, and the crust of bread.

  3. Cover and simmer until the fish separates.

  4. Strain the soup.

Serve

  1. Toast the slices of bread until deep brown, then cut into triangles or squares.

  2. Slice the carrot lengthwise into four pieces.

  3. Place the toast and carrot in a tureen and pour the soup over.

  4. Optionally, add boiling cream thickened with a little flour.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Pepper + carrottop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,555 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  2. Onion + carrottop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Mace + carrottop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,592 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  5. Onion + breadtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,676 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Eels
Provide the main flesh and body of the soup, releasing flavor as they simmer.
Onion
Adds savory sweetness and depth to the broth as it cooks.
Bread crust
Lends body and helps thicken the broth slightly as it simmers.
Sweet herbs
Contribute aromatic, herbal notes that season the broth.

The step that matters

Simmer until the fish separates. Simmering gently keeps the broth clear and the eels tender; boiling vigorously can break up the flesh and cloud the soup.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (onion, pepper, bread, carrot):

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Celeryfits better
  3. Marjoramfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against onion, pepper, bread, carrot. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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